BLOG UPDATED!!!

I'm sorry for the delay! But here are a few snippets from the past month! It's not complete but when I have more time to work on it I will refine the blog more! Thanks for sticking with me!

Day 85 May 20th 2009 Rome, Italy

Early morning wake up call to jump on the shuttle to the airport. Cara, mom and I all met Andrew as he walked through the arrivals gate then I said goodbye to the family and jumped a train back to the Holiday Inn to hang for awhile before Katie headed off to Fiumicino and back to United States of D’Americas for reinstating to regular existence. For yours truly, I would stay in the fantasy world burning funds and eating montecarlo pizzas for a bit while longer. I showed Andrew the famous eatery on little via Savelli lane and he agreed on the time-tested fact that montecarlo is bomb food for piddles prices. Dinner adjourned we met up with Peter “Goofy Pete” Edwards who so happened to be in Rome for Penn State’s architecture program and was living over piazza Navona. We wandered over to Abbey Theatre for a round of Irish luck or two. Then we parted ways with Mr. Goof and Andrew and I made our way back to the Chianti hostel near Termini to take on some bunk-bed sleepin’.

Day 84 May 19th 2009 En route to Rome, Italy

Arose to clean up and pack up the rest of the apartment by the sea. Pina, the caretaker arrived at 10 to check everything out and we were off at 10:30. But we didn’t make it very far. 100 meters down the road a stop to grab a load of painted pottery. Another 100m and a stop for group picture. And so on it went. Finally we were traveling up and and through the mountain towards Sorrento because we had decided it might be cool to stop in Pompeii to see the ruins. But this was not to be as we took a democratic vote and wanted to spend a bit more time in Rome so we bypassed Pompeii and shot straight up on the A1 autostrada back to Rome. Dropped the car back at Avis with a big thanks to Guida who we couldn’t have made it without. Got into our room at the hotel Holiday Inn then proceeded to take one sweaty train, one double-sweaty metro and one triple-sweaty bus over towards piazza Navona. After getting out of the sweaty mass that is Rome public transportation during summer, we made it to the elongated piazza of fountains and artists. We sat down for an overpriced dinner, but hey it’s a nice location right?, then the girls went strolling around for some art shopping. A quick cab back to the Holiday ended the evening.

Day 83 May 18th 2009 Capri, Italy

We set off on a ferry from Positano to Capri today! B-e-a-utiful day out today and the perfect weather to go explore the fabled island. Upon landing my mom was immediately harassed by a man trying to take us for a private tour of the island on his slooper of a boat. We finally shook him only to run into another guy offering the same services for more than what we had bargained the other guy. I told him of the lowball offer and he shut up and left us alone after that. We grabbed tickets for a big tour ferry of the island which stopped at the blue grotto. I had been into the blue grotto before in 2004 with the Rice high school Europe trip but it still is great fun to go into it. But two things I didn’t notice before when I was here was the road access now and the money-taking boat to get into the grotto. I do hope the island government of Capri is running that boat because if some private company somehow got monopoly access to the grotto I would be pissed. The thing is a national treasure and it just is a bit too commercial right now. After taking our tour of the blue grotto our tour boat set off for the round-the-island tour of different fascinations and the like. We saw the green grotto, the lovers arch, Giorgio Armani’s rockside house Sophia Loren’s huge rock mansion overlooking little marina. I had not taken the around the island tour when I was here with the high school Europe trip so it was a new look for me at an island I had been on before. The island tour over Team Mom, Cara, Katie and I took the cable car up to the main town of Capri and Katie set off to check out the sandal place she had heard about. We then jumped on a rickety bus down to small marina where the water was crystal blue and the beaches hard stones. But we didn’t care because it was so hot we all jumped in the water to take a very refreshing and welcome swim in the mid Tyrrhenian Sea. A quick bus ride back up to the town and cable car down to the big marina where we burned some time and had sub-par fried calamari again. Ferry took us back to Positano and our trusty wheel-woman mother guided us back safely in the dark along the razors edge of the cliff to Praiano. Packed up a bit and let the salty sea breeze bring sleep.

Day 82 May 17th 2009 Praiano, Italy

Made it an earlier morning as we set off for Ravello, a town set more inland behind Amalfi. We checked out the church and almost went into the Villa of the emperor but decided against it and scurried off back down to the apartment. This evening we drove to the neighboring Positano for dinner on the beach at L’Incanto. The food was ok, nothing special but eating right down at the beach was a real treat. I just keep getting fried calamari and still no one has bested the batch I ate in Santa Margherita Ligure on the Cinque Terre coast. We drove the windy roads back in the dark which actually helps somewhat because you can see the headlights coming around the hairpin turns so we knew a car was around the bend and could slow down and move to the right to avoid it.

Day 81 May 16th 2009 Praiano, Italy

Everyone slept in this morning after our stressful day of traveling and driving yesterday. The weather was partly cloudy but we went down the 240 steps to the rocks below to check out the water. Everyone laid out in the sun for awhile and I napped on the rocks. We went into Amalfi to walk around and browse for a bit. Took the drive back to the apartment and just relaxed at the apartment until bedtime.

Day 80 May 15th 2009 En route to Praiano, Italy

Arose and packed up my remaining items. Gathered up a bunch of the food in the fridge and brought it out to one of the resident homeless people and dogs that live around the corner, doing a good deed. Met up with mother and Cara once more to head to Fiumicino to pick up the rental car. Haha our car is a Fiat Qubo, but we nicknamed it the “Blue Marshmallow” because its big and vibrant blue! Thinking ahead I also leased a GPS unit from AVIS to make sure we didn’t end up totally lost on the Amalfi coast. Man did this thing save our trip at some points. We nicknamed her “Guida” which is actually quite humorous considering the word guida is the third person conjugation of the verb guidare, to drive; so guida also stands for “It drives.” We jumped on the A1 autostrada and off we went for an adventure south. Things started to get very interesting when we got to the part of the trip where the road starts winding along the hillsides of Amalfi and the other coastal towns. The drivers are crazier than Rome! Obviously there are less intersections and all that city driving stuff but these Italians drive at 50mph along a 1 1/2 lane road still talking on the cell phone while eating and putting on makeup! It was all my mother could do to keep us from sideswiping the tourists walking on the right and the cars blazing by on the left! We finally found the entrance gate to the apartment and descended a steep San Francisco-like turny driveway down to our new residence. The charming little apartment with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths is an excellent fit for our party of 4, but what has your mouth wide open is the view of the gulf and terraced towns to the left and right. On our way to the apartment we had stopped in the town of Amalfi to grab some groceries and we ended up just cooking up some pasta and drinking delicious local Campania wine to celebrate our arrival in paradise.

Day 79 May 14th 2009 Rome, Italy

Mama and Cara arrived this morning at Fiumicino airport and I was there to grab them and bring them back into Rome! After dropping the luggage at the hotel I took them for a cappuccino before scurrying over to the Vatican because we had made a reservation to go on the Scavi underground tour. This is a very cool tour if you ever get the chance. The Vatican only allows about 250 people to take the tour every day because the history contained under St. Peter’s Basilica is just too priceless to open up to all public. A full 2000 years of history is layered under the giant basilica and at the end of the tour you are standing 8 feet away from the purported bones of St. Peter. You have to send an email to the scavi office in the vatican to make the reservation. After the tour Mom and Cara were very tired so I dropped them off at the Mercure hotel near the Colosseum and headed over to my school, Lorenzo de’Medici for an end of school party. We taught our school administrators how to play American-style flip cup and opened up quite a few bottles of bubbly. I returned to the hotel and picked up a refreshed family to cruise down Via del Corso and show them the super-shopping street. Via del Corso and the perpendicular Via dei Condotti are the biggest name shopping streets in Rome, containing everything from giant department stores to small vendors to Dior, Versace and Armani stores. Didn’t buy anything but we had to exchange some American dollars to euros so we walked over to the American Express office to complete the exchange. Damn weak dollar right now! We jumped in a cab after to head out to the Ciampino airport to pick up Katie who was arriving from Dublin after touring the country with her mom. The end of the year LDM school dinner was that night so we took a taxi again from the Ciampino airport towards the city. Here’s where things got a little interesting and stressful. The cab driver did not exactly know the address I gave her for the restaurant we were going to at first, so she typed it into her GPS. But the GPS didn’t have the exact address I had either so we were kind of driving on a prayer. Well the prayer didn’t help too much because we got very lost looking for this place. To compound the problem, I called Davide, the administrator of our school to get the name of the restaurant because the address wasn’t working. But all he could say was the restaurant was called ristorante! That’s Italian for restaurant! So without the name and without the exact address working we somehow after 20 minutes found the place. Now here it gets even better. The place we were eating was a traditional Roman restaurant, meaning they only serve what Romans ate 2000 years ago. To make a long story short Katie, after telling the chef she could not eat wheat, was served a boiled squid and some sort of mashed polenta. You, reader, can imagine the results. I did end up eating a tentacle which tasted sort of fishy and rubbery but in the end the squid got hidden under the remaining food and sent back. On the flip side the red wine mixed with honey was very delicious and the soup was quite good. A ride back into the city to drop off Mama and Cara and Katie and I went back to the apartment in Trastevere.

Day 70 April 18th 2009 Cinque Terre, Italy

Got out of the apartment early this morning to jump a train from Termini station up to Firenze to meet my illustrious travel cohort Katie E. “Carmen San Diego” Suominen. We then boarded a couple of trains that took us all the way up to the Italian Riviera to the small 60 degree sloped-on-a-mountain town of Riomaggiore. The hike up on the road to the hotel reception left us winded. After depositing our baggage in what can only be described as Batman’s small Italian town version of the batcave, we boarded a short train to the neighboring town of Monterosso. Here we began the famous Cinque Terre hike that spans the five coastal towns. Well we actually only completed the Due Terre hike as for some reason Katie and I can never come prepare correctly for a hike of any sort. Last year we hiked Camel’s Hump with 30 pound backpacks of camping gear on our backs only to find that you can’t actually camp on Camel’s Hump and we would need to hike an additional 1.5 miles in the dark to get to the campsite. Needless to say, both then and now we took the route that led as quickly home as possible. But the sights were beautiful, with the Tyrrhenian Ocean below us and carved terraced Vermentino and pigato vines crawling out from the rocky soil. Oh I didn’t mention why were unprepared for the hike. Katie was wearing thong sandals and we had not a bottle of water nor trail snack between us. Soo typical. But we made it finally to the town of Vernazza which was stunningly beautiful as well. Starving we were, so we sat down on a rock jetty and ate some delicious bruschetta con pesto e pomodoro, insalata frutti di mare e Trofie con pesto (the local pasta). The pesto was to die for here. After the delicious meal we jumped a train back from Vernazza to Riomaggiore for a riposo nap. But in typical fashion we did not wake up from this nap until 7am the next morning.

Days 67 - 69 March 31st to April 2nd Rome, Italy

Started up the new week of class by not going very much because of big change ups in the schedule. Every class was at a different time thus causing me to have to miss one class while attending another. All in all only made 2 classes out of 5 this week... sigh...

Day 66 March 30th 2009 En route to Rome, Italy

One last kabab and then we took the metro back to the airport. Grabbed the exit row seat like always with its ample leg room. Arrived exhausted into Rome Ciampino and grabbed a cab with the others back to the apartment and promptly fell asleep.

Day 65 March 29th 2009 Valencia, Spain

Today was science museum day! We traveled to the astoundingly modern science buildings of Valencia trying to go through the Aquarium. Unfortunately, the aquarium was closing in 2 hours and walking through requires about 3. So we decided upon the science museum nearby instead. Its called the Ciudad de las Artes y las ciencias and it contains every type of museum and exhibit one could ever want. I particularly enjoyed the science museum and all it’s hands-on activities of science. That night a delicious dinner of seafood paella finished us off and we packed up ready to fly out the next day.

Day 64 March 28th 2009 Valencia, Spain

Today was tour Valencia day. Saw a cool castle, climbed a spiral tower connected to a large church. Just did the super sightseeing deal. The sights were fantastic but even more fun was the evening when Carlos’ friends came over and we all played a game of international kings cup. Now for those lay people out there that haven’t been to college in awhile or are yet to enter, kings cup is a drinking game played with cards fanned out in a circle on a table with a cup in the middle. There are many, many variations to the rules so if mine are different than yours, which they will be, don’t take offense. So each card signifies an activity or game that the person drawing the card has to do. For example: all number 2 cards mean the puller must choose two people to sip on whatever cold beverage may be in their hand at the time. And on it goes: 3 is for me (puller sips), 4 touch the floor, 5 all guys, 6 all chicks, 7 hand to heaven, 8 make a date (you and your date sip), 9 bust a rhyme (puller raps a phrase and others must follow), 10 categories (puller chooses a category of anything and the rest name things in that category), jack is back (person who went before puller sips), queen is questions (this one has tougher to explain rules, consult the internet), king is make a rule to be used for the rest of the game. The reason I give you a quick rundown of the rules is because the hilarity stems from playing with guys who speak good english but are not technical enough to rhyme english words or say different categorical items. So imagine saying, “Yo I caught a fish” and expecting to hear dish or swish and hearing, ”ya then I ate my dinner.” With international kings finished we went over to a birthday party being held for one of Carlos’ friends. A few attempted spanish lessons later and a return for rest.

Day 63 March 27th 2009 Valencia, Spain

Early wake to move our stuff out of the apartment for cleaning. Grabbed a other-worldly kabab and headed off for the brand new Valencia Zoo! Such a beautiful day out, 80 and sunny blue skies. I felt like a preschooler again as we stomped around the zoo checking out all the amazing animals, everything from meerkats to giraffes to rhinos. The monkeys were the best, rolling around with their colored behinds. Big photo opportunity. Zoo adventure concluded, we headed back to hang for awhile at the apartment. That evening we grabbed some dinner and headed over to a park to chill and boteone. Ended up at Cafe Valencia, a loud pub/disco where a company was repping Desperadoes Tequila infused beer, a novel idea to be sure. Got the nightlife fix and back to the apartment for night riposo.

Day 62 March 26th 2009 Madrid, Spain / Valencia, Spain

A bit cramped flight to Madrid then a better jump over to Valencia. Met Gabby at the Valencia airport as she arrived about the same time I did coming from England. The problem was we needed to burn 6 hours at the airport to wait for Ryan and Jess to show up so we could all go into Valencia together. I am pretty good at wasting time now. I’m not sure if its a great skill but when your traveling poor, you trade more time for less money, so I can deal. Ryan and Jess finally arrived and we all took the metro into Valencia. A funny thing happened when we were trying to get out of the station. The Spanish metro works like this: you buy a ticket at a machine, scan it to get to the tracks, get on the train, then scan the ticket again to leave to ensure you didn’t buy the cheapest ticket and ride it for longer. Well us silly non-spanish speaking travelers did not buy the right tickets and thus it was 11pm at night and we could not get out of the metro station because the gates wouldn’t open for our tickets. We must have looked like constipated weiner dogs scrambling around the gates trying to figure out how to get of the darn terminal! Some Spanish transportation official must have taken pity on us because miraculously after 15 minutes of scrambling like this, the gates opened and we all bolted out. Carlos was our gracious host and we stayed at his super nice apartment right in central city Valencia. A good night of sleep was greatly appreciated.

Day 61 March 25th 2009 Galway, Ireland

Jumped on a bus to the Cliffs of Moher this morning to do a little sightseeing in Ireland. First off, the bus driver was certainly satan’s chauffeur because we were trucking along one lane roads with oncoming traffic at 50 miles an hour. I don’t get car sick but this ride almost changed that notion. Did have a chance to take in a lot of the Irish countryside and see the never-ending rock walls that extend in every direction for miles into the haze. The cliffs were amazing with straight razor edge walls dropping downward for 500 feet or more. Made for good pictures typical of Irish postcards. Crazy bus ride back to Galway where the girls left to go back to Dublin. Myself, on the other hand, had not booked a hostel for tonight because I had found a little scheme. My flight from Dublin to Valencia Spain was at 7am the next morning and there was a bus that left Galway at 2am and arrived at Dublin airport at 5am. So I would sleep on the bus, paying only 5euros for the bus and use that as my transport + mobile hostel. But I had to kill some serious time before 2am so I walked over to Kelley’s apartment. If you’re reading this, thanks again Kelley! I did laundry and got to watch english TV after quite a few days of hectic travel. I was also living out of nothing but my travel backpack which I had filled to maximum capacity but just under the weight limit so I could take it on the plane and not pay check bag fees. A rainy walk to the bus station and shaky sleep ensued. A bit groggy I arrived at the Dublin airport and met back up with Courtney and Rebecca as they were traveling to Madrid to stay with their friend there. Ryanair is a great airline if things go smoothly, but if bad things happen, they are really bad. The suitcase that the girls were using for the two of them was 8 kg over the check bag limit allowed by Ryanair and they had to pay 120euros! to put the bag on the plane. Just awful. I once again slipped by with my backpack without paying but only because I was wearing 3 layers of my heaviest clothing.

Day 60 March 24th 2009 Dublin Ireland / Galway, Ireland

Early bus across Ireland today to Galway for a night in the western atlantic town. I love the Irish accent. I tried to talk to every Irish citizen I could and I don’t care what were talking about as long as I can hear the accent. It makes me happy for some reason. Too bad Vermonters don’t have much of an accent...”sigh”. Checked into the Kinlay Galway Hostel where I was sleeping in a 4 bedroom dorm. I had no problems in the 8 bed one back in Dublin and lord it was so cheap to stay like that. After dropping the bags off at the hostel, Court, Bec and I wandered down into the main street of town, which really reminded me of Church St. back in Burlington. Lined with shops and eateries of every sort, street performers playing tunes, just a really fun atmosphere. Well the weather wasn’t great so we ended up just cruising from pub to pub and shop to shop. Drink a Guiness, check out some Ireland T-shirts, go down to the water, go to the pub and drink a Bailey’s, you get the idea. That night I met up with Rice classmate Kelley O’Brien who is studying abroad in Galway this semester. We went to a place called the cellar which has 5euro pitchers of beer on Tuesdays. So a pitcher per person it was. It was interesting to hear a whole new perspective of study abroad in a different country than Italy. Back to the Kinlay house for top bunk sleepin’.

Day 59 March 23rd 2009 Brussels, Belgium / Dublin, Ireland

Sent Katie off on the airport shuttle then took a quick self tour of Brussels before my flight left for Dublin. Grabbed a waffle, some Leffe beer, and a meat covered piece of bread. It’s true, Belgian waffles are the best. I also bought some Belgian chocolate from the Leonidas chain store. Tripadvisor.com has been so amazingly useful in finding amazing places in all the cities I’ve been, I highly recommend using it if you are going abroad or even in the US (I think?) Made my way to the airport and jumped on my Ryanair flight for Dublin. The best/worst thing (depending) about Ryanair is there are no assigned seats on your ticket, its just a free-for-all to get to the plane and grab seats. In this way it may seem to the unenthusiastic this a big pain in the butt rush. But to an young traveler like myself who can stand pushing and shoving and a bit of competitiveness and the thrill of the chase, I love the fact that I can get exit row seats every flight without paying a dollar more or needing to be a frequent flier. Katie knows my favorite term for this, the “stick and move” from boxing. I use the legspeed and a bit of freestyle walking to get to where I want to be. So landed in Dublin, checked into the Globetrotters Hostel where I was staying in an 8 bed dorm and grabbed a bite to eat with Courtney and Rebecca who had been in Dublin for 3 days prior to me.

Day 58 March 22nd 2009 Amsterdam, Netherlands

Delicious free breakfast one more time before heading over into inner Amsterdam to find the office of Mike’s Bike Tours. After finding the office we were led over to the bike storage shop on the other side of the street and introduced to our guide, Shaun. Shaun had lived in LA and now resides in Amsterdam giving tours as his full time job. He started us off with a quick history of the Netherlands and Amsterdam including wars, commerce, city-destroying fires and the people of tolerance. Then we were split into two groups because there were so many people there for the tour. Bikes were supplied and we were on our way outside, following Shaun in a 20 person duckling line. It was a bit chilly but perfect weather for a slightly athletic bike ride. We stopped at all different points in the city to chat about waterways, Amsterdam housing, marijuana, the Red Light District, invasion by Germans, Yoko Ono and John Lennon and everything else one could ever want to know about the city. We eventually ended up at a small farm outside the city after seeing a very cool windmill. At the farm we got delicious samples of the cheese the farm produced as well as got to see a quick process of making the wooden clogs that Holland is so famous for. It is very uncommon now to see everyday Amsterdamm’ers in wooden clogs but our farmer tour guide explained to us that a few professions still require the use of the super tough shoe, like farmers to protect their feet from cow hooves. Katie and I both bought a small wheel of cheese from the farm and we headed on our bikes back into the city. Shaun told us about a business in Amsterdam that had been selling nothing but french fries for 60 years so Katie and I went over to check it out. This place was the typical hole in the wall take away eatery but man, their fries were out of this world. I got something called “hawaiian” sauce which tasted a bit like tarter sauce and Katie got the mayo-fries. Both were excellent caloric gut bombs. We picked up our bags from the hotel and headed towards the train station, planning on grabbing the overnight train back to Brussels. That plan was not going to work so well considering there was no overnight train back to Brussels. So we instead took the 9pm train getting into Brussels at 11:30 and had to stay at a last minute hotel one night so Katie could leave back to Florence the next morning.

Day 57 March 21st 2009 Amsterdam, Netherlands

Up around 9am to grab some comp-breakfast and head over to the Vincent Van Gogh museum for a tour of amazing art. The theme was “Stars and Nighttime” with the main feature piece of course being “Starry Night” by Van Gogh. A free audio listener was included so Katie and I perused leisurely through the exhibits, getting the info on each one. I’m not much of an art guy but seeing the comparisons between all the works on the subject of night was really fascinating. Potato Eaters in particular captivated my attention for quite a while. Van Gogh tour completed, we decided we really wanted some straight American lunch food. Off to Hard Rock cafe it was. Overpriced, of course, but still hit the spot. Pulled pork sandwich for me and a big burger for Katie, plus two Heineken of course. Back to the hotel to watch German television and rest for a little bit. Dinner at the Satellite bar to watch ‘Nova basketball in the NCAA tourney.